AndyFish wrote:I've read the book-- there's a lot of good stuff in there. A good chapter devoted to the serials and another to the '66 Batman-- it's pretty accurate stuff. I'd recommend it.

Larry- here's the Bat-ray gun from 1943

I've always found it interesting that fans usually identify the weapon as a "Bat-gun" or belonging to Batman, when it was Dr. Daka's radium-powered gun. I guess publicity thought it made Batman seem formidable. in any case, it was a great design at a time when it was next to not-gonna-happen to see well constructed hand props in superhero serials.

Hi B.W.H.,
You make, in my opinion, a VERY good point, although after Batman captured Dr. Daka, it became Batman's "Bat Raygun"....."from a certain point of view"! Change the radiating cooling fins to a "bat" shape, ala the "Batzooka" and One WOULD have a 1943 "Bat-Ray" gun. Something to think about, eh?

Glad to have made it through the SEVERE weather last night intact!!!!!!!

The GREENBRIAR PICTURE SHOWS site pointed out that, if you lived in the south, Serials had never left the mainstream movie theatres(neither had 40s films in general). I remember that one of the BATMAN serials played mainstream cinemas after the TV series began, and I think it was the '49 one.(Did the '43 play at mainstream cinemas as well?)

I've been looking at the James Van Hiss books on this subject and have found two editions. One has a red cover and is titled "The Serial Adventures of Batman". The other has a yellow cover and is named "The Serial Adventures of Batman & Robin". I'm wondering if the red covered version deals only with the 1943 serial, and the yellow one covers either both '43 and '49 or just '49. I can't seem to find any detailed information to clear up my questions. I know Van Hiss did Batmania and Batmania II, with the second one having more information than the first. Any help would be appreciated.

There is a rare beyond rare photo of the Duo from 1943 of Our hero’s with arms crossed that for my pitiful detective skills has only appeared once in 1974 in the Back of the Treasury Edition Batman
Andy and I have been on the hunt for the actual photo for years -I’ll post a pic in a bit , it really doesn’t exist on line anywhere

There is a rare beyond rare photo of the Duo from 1943 of Our hero’s with arms crossed that for my pitiful detective skills has only appeared once in 1974 in the Back of the Treasury Edition Batman
Andy and I have been on the hunt for the actual photo for years -I’ll post a pic in a bit , it really doesn’t exist on line anywhere

Meanwhile, in July of 1965 the Playboy Theater in Chicago started showing an episode of the Batman serial on weekends along with it's art house films, and reaction was strong. In the fall of '65 Hugh Hefner strung all 15 chapters of the serial together and showed it as AN EVENING WITH BATMAN AND ROBIN and it drew in huge crowds of movie buffs and college kids. Columbia took note of the record breaking attendance and created the same package which it offered to small theaters all over the country.

Australia waited almost 18 months for the West/Ward TV series to arrive on our TV screens but, until then, we also had the above event!

"With the screening of 'Batman' at Sydney's Capitol Theatre from May 20 [1966], teenagers of the 1930s and '40s will get a nostalgic look at the past, and today's generation could be caught up in 'Batmania', a cult sweeping America.

"Long, long ago - before television - many of the mothers and fathers of today's teenagers had a Saturday afternoon date each week at the local picture theatre.

"At the end of each episode, they were left wondering: would the hero foil yet another dastardly attempt by the enemy to eliminate him? The answer sent them hurrying back to 'the pictures' week after week.

"Corny! Of course. But so corny that, when Columbia Pictures dug out 15 episodes of the vintage serial from the bottom of their film files and strung them together to make a mammoth 248-minute movie, the result entranced young, and not so young, Americans.

"'Batmania' started in America last year. The revival has been attributed to many sources: to an American university which screened the old serials for their students; to the Chicago Playboy Club, which showed one serial to its members, then ran the lot when it turned out to be a huge success; and to the cellar coffee lounges which are always on the lookout for POP entertainment.

"Partly responsible for the revival were POP artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, who had started exhibiting paintings of old-time comic strips along with soup-cans and hotdogs.

"Other artists began looking for more specimens of what America currently calls 'camp': something so absurdly old-fashioned that it's new.

"'Batman' was an obvious choice. It WAS square, it WAS different. It was a change from the Bond-type movies of slick sophistication and gimmickry.

"'Batman' offered a more rough-and-tumble entertainment, where audiences could boo the 'baddies' and cheer the 'goodies'. It offered audience participation at an uninhibited level.

"Next, television jumped on the bandwagon and made a new series of Bat adventures.

"In some quarters they were an instant success. Others felt that the TV producers had tried too hard, that the 1966 version was too contrived, and lacked the appeal of the unintentional.

"But, wherever its rebirth, 'Batman' is back in its vintage glory, with fashions of the '40s, diabolical plots, and melodramatic dialogue."

"THE 'GOODIES': Batman (played by Lewis Wilson) and his able young assistant, Robin (Douglas Croft), in the disguise they wear when combating the forces of evil. No one guesses their identities."

THE 'BADDIES': Dr. Dakar (played by J. Carrol Naish), flanked by two of his henchmen, holds a menacing radium gun in this scene from the adventure film 'Batman'. The film, which comprises 15 episodes of an old-time serial, runs for 248 minutes."

"After the screening of 'Batman' in Sydney, it will have preview screenings in other states."

I would love a Batman serial book on both the 43 and 49 am always looking for info on those serials like for the 49 one on who the stunt men that played batman wear to me there seems to be 3-4 that wear used i would really love a book about both these serial there's a book called Billion Dollar Batman i wrote to the author he said he talks a lot about the serial and talked to Jane Adams as well as Lewis Wilson son along with Douglas Croft Niece i think it was. But then i saw a review someone said he didn't really talk much about the serials that much.

Just got the Kindle edition of "Billion Dollar Batman" and there's several chapters devoted to the serials.

There is a rare beyond rare photo of the Duo from 1943 of Our hero’s with arms crossed that for my pitiful detective skills has only appeared once in 1974 in the Back of the Treasury Edition Batman
Andy and I have been on the hunt for the actual photo for years -I’ll post a pic in a bit , it really doesn’t exist on line anywhere